Foot-and-mouth now in North, says military

Foot-and-mouth now in North, says military January 18, 2011

North Korea is apparently suffering from its own bout of foot-and-mouth disease, according to a South Korean military official. “According to South Korean and U.S. intelligence, roads have been blocked by the military near Pyongyang to decrease movement of people,” said the official, who asked not to be named. The source said that quarantine measures are proving difficult for North Korea, which lacks preventive medicine such as vaccines and quicklime in which to bury contagious animals. Although the extremely contagious disease has only been detected in areas near North Korea’s capital of Pyongyang, the communist military is known to raise livestock in large numbers to feed its soldiers. The source said that North Koreans have been consuming infected pigs and cattle instead of culling them. FMD is known to be harmless to humans. South Korea has been battling the disease for weeks. This is the second time that North Korea has experienced an outbreak of the disease. The first outbreak was reported in 2007. At that time, officials from other countries and from the World Organization for Animal Health visited the country on a consultative mission and said there was a “limited danger” for severe outbreaks in the country. Roughly 4,000 animals were culled during that outbreak. It’s not yet known if the same aid will be given this year from international organizations. North and South Korea cooperated in 2007 against the outbreak, but frigid current relations may preclude that. Hatip Makato